Nuclear decision postponed until March

  • 2013-01-09
  • From wire reports

VILNIUS - The question of whether Lithuania is really going to choose the nuclear option and build the Visaginas nuclear power plant (NPP) should be decided in mid-March, says Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevicius, reports ELTA.
“I believe that in mid-March we will know, because a working group has been tasked to review Lithuania’s independent energy strategy and recommend a particular action model in order to achieve it,” the PM said on Jan. 4 after a meeting with reporters, adding that “models could be different.”

Butkevicius, who on Jan. 3 said that he missed some of the NPP construction-related documents signed by the Baltic States, has revealed that he already received one of them. “Following my interview yesterday I received a document, a memorandum of the three Baltic States (…), it is a political document bearing no commitments,” he said.
When asked what he is going to tell his Baltic colleagues on his visit to Latvia on Jan. 10, Butkevicius said that they would be informed that the new government of Lithuania is familiarizing itself with the current energy sector situation.

“Latvia will be told that the new government is familiarizing itself with the current situation in the energy sector, that there is a working group to review the independent energy strategy of Lithuania which in approximately 2 months would provide an answer,” the leader of the Social Democrats said.